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ARC Review: The Queen's Choice by Cayla Kluver ★★★

The Queen's Choice by Cayla KluverGenre: YA FantasySeries: Heirs of Chrior #1Publication Date: January 28th 2014ISBN: 9780373210923Page Count: 512Rating: ★★★Review Copy: ARCReviewed by: LynseyBuy Link: AMAZONSynopsis: Magic was seeping out of me, black and agonizing. I could see it drifting away. The magic that would let me pass the Road to reach home again.

When sixteen-year-old Anya learns that her aunt, Queen of the Faerie Kingdom of Chrior, will soon die, her grief is equalled only by her despair for the future of the kingdom. Her young cousin, Illumina, is unfit to rule, and Anya is determined not to take up the queen's mantle herself.

Convinced that the only solution is to find Prince Zabriel, who long ago disappeared into the human realm of Warckum, and persuade him to take up his rightful crown, Anya journeys into the Warckum Territory to bring him home. But her journey is doomed to be more harrowing than she ever could have imagined.

REVIEW

An interesting fantasy adventure.

Overall I enjoyed The Queen's Choice. I liked the world and the characters and the writing. It was, however, a book I found I could put down often to revisit later, rather than a real page-turner, which would be my preference. If it helps as a point of reference for you, this is exactly how I feel about the Harry Potter books. I can enjoy and appreciate them, but I can also put them down without any trouble whatsoever, and am constantly aware I'm reading a children's book (I've only read HP books 1-4, although I've heard the later books are more more mature in content). That said, when I was actually reading The Queen's Choice, it was entertaining. I definitely found that it didn't follow any of my preconceived ideas plot-wise, either. I felt sure there would be the obligatory romance that would dominate the later stages, but it didn't turn out that way at all, and even when there was a glimmer of romance, it came from an unsuspecting source. So definitely some surprises along the way, none more so than what happened to Anya in the first few chapters!

I think if there are people out there who, like myself, have looked at the cover of The Queen's Choice and thought it might be a new teen fantasy romance in the vein of Sara J. Maas or Kristin Cashore, they might be slightly underwhelmed by it. That's not simply because the romance was lacking, although for me, personally, that was a big part of it— even though I hate to make it sound like romance is the be all and end all of everything, when I know for some people the absence of that very thing will be its biggest selling point—but also because the plotting is quite gentle, with no big, flashy action scenes to speak of. I guess you could say Anya was fairly badass, especially in comparison to her travel partner, but she didn't really get a chance to showcase it in this book at all.

The main focus of the plot is a journey to find a missing Fae prince. Anya and her female companion carry the majority of the page time as they travel together via various means. There are, of course, other characters that crop up along the way, as well as some icky nasties that provide some necessary peril. And that's basically what it's about. Which explains, perhaps, why it's so easy to stop reading. The excitement level remained constant throughout, with very few ups and downs. You will hopefully find that the characters are enjoyable enough to negate that. I certainly enjoyed them. I'm just of the theory that I wasn't quite the right audience for this book (romance whore) as it read more middle grade than YA, but I can definitely see it entertaining younger readers and fans of straight fantasy adventure.

3 Stars ★★★
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.